It's a comic! It's a movie! It's ...

Identity crises are nothing new to the comics world. (“It's a bird! It's a plane!” )

But even some people at the creative epicenter of a new form called “motion comics” seem flummoxed at how to describe the concept.

It's a comic that talks! It's a movie without the “move”! It's print and video and cell-phone app all rolled into one!

It's “a comic book of the air,” ventures “Spider-Man” creator and pop-culture demigod Stan Lee, who is debuting a motion comic called “Time Jumper” this week at Comic-Con International.

Whatever it is, plenty of movers in the comics world seem to believe this supercharged, digitized hybrid could be the next big thing.

As Comic-Con opened yesterday at the Convention Center, Warner Premiere (a corporate sibling of comics giant DC) rolled out a slate of motion comics from “Batgirl: Year 1” to “Superman: Red Son” to a new incarnation of “Watchmen.”

Lee also was on hand to unveil “Time Jumpers,” produced by Disney and featuring the voices of Natasha Henstridge and Lee himself. And the actor William Katt (“The Greatest American Hero”) is at the Con to show off “Sparks Part 2,” a dark motion comic put out by his own upstart company, Catastrophic Comics.

Although the precise form of this still-fluid concept varies from one production to the next, the basic motion comic looks something like a comic book that's been filmed panel by panel and enhanced by character voices, music and sound effects.

Some, like Katt's “Sparks,” feature characters that are meticulously lip-synced to the dialogue. Others, like “Time Jumpers,” have no moving mouths at all, but include both voices and text balloons (as well as dynamic shot techniques that make the experience feel more movielike).

It can be hard to discern at times whether the form is a bold leap forward or a quaint step back. “Batgirl,” with its halfheartedly lip-synced characters, tended to resemble an unambitiously animated TV cartoon in the clip Warners screened.

But one thing all these ventures have in common: They're meant to capitalize on the rise of digital devices. Virtually all can be downloaded through iTunes or other Web services, and viewed on iPods, phones and PCs.

In that way, motion comics join a larger digital revolution in the comics world. Publishers with roots in print – from the giant DC Comics to the San Diego-based powerhouse IDW – are peddling electronic versions of their hottest traditional comics. (IDW's most recent digital offerings include its “Transformers” and “CSI” series.)

In an interview session after the “Time Jumper” panel, Lee elaborated on how all this ties in to his “comic book of the air” conceit.

“You'll get it on your cell phone, you'll get it on the Internet,” Lee says of “Time Jumper,” which showcases Henstridge as a villainess named Charity Vyle and Lee as a Bond-esque boss man. “It's the next evolution of the comic book, I guess.

“Don't get me wrong – it doesn't mean it'll replace the comic book. It's not meant to replace the comic book. It's just another form of comics, really.”

Or maybe a whole bunch of forms.

“The line is blurred a little bit between animation and motion comics,” observes Kaat. “Is it animation, is it a comic book, is it live action?

“We have real (union) actors, we add interesting sound effects and an interesting score. It's really a mini-movie. But I think it's also its own hybrid. And I think we will discover in the next year what it really is – and what we're capable of achieving.”